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Join our Sleep forum for tips on creating a sleep routine for your baby or toddler.

Join our Sleep forum for tips on creating a sleep routine for your baby or toddler.

Sleep

are short naps ok?

18 replies

magicfairy · 07/01/2007 09:08

DS is 4 months and isnt a great sleeper, he generally has 3 naps a day, but they only last between 15 mins and 45mins, usually 30 mins. V occasionally he will do an epic 3 hour one if started off in the buggy, but only v rarley. When he does have good long naps, he sleeps for longer at night, well the first stint anyway, which is usually from 7 - anywhere betwen 10 and 1, then he is awake every 2-3 hours for a bf. Any tips for getting him to nap for longer? or should i just not worry about it?

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cruisemum1 · 07/01/2007 15:54

ditto here with 17 wk old. they shd defo be having longer naps. i am quite worried about it tbh.

cruisemum1 · 07/01/2007 15:55

btw - your lo is exactly like mine with bedtime sleeps too. hard isn't it. he has napped 90 mins total today - poor thing

PinkTulips · 07/01/2007 16:13

snap with my 5 month old. no idea how to stretch them out, he's been asleep now for 30 mins after only having 2 x 10 min naps earlier and is already rustling

cruisemum1 · 07/01/2007 17:12

pinktulips - devestating isn't it. i am gonna bath/feed and put mine to bed. seems pointless keeping him up to get even more wired. whadya think?

PinkTulips · 07/01/2007 18:25

i tend to start the bedtime routine here as early as possible as that way at least if he won't settle i'm not too shattered to cope iykwim?

dd was like this as well and it just got progressivly worse til at 12 months she was only getting 2-4 hours at night and maybe 1 during the day and we had to do c/c hope never to have to do that again though, it's horrendous

cruisemum1 · 07/01/2007 18:32

Oh s*. my dd was an absolute angel by comparison! So maybe there is hope...
She did take a dummy though which was a lifesaver I am sure. ds won't take one (believe my I have tried!) He has gone to bed now (6:30pm) and is sound asleep but..... the most annoying thing is that up until about 5 weeks ago he was sleeping 8 - 10 hrs straight

PinkTulips · 07/01/2007 18:36

both mine take dummies.... he wakes up to play with it >

he was an angel when he was tiny..... 6/7 hours most night and he's bf! no idea how i managed to break him too he was in his cot last night at 7pm, slept there til 1 (had to be fed twice though to stay there!) then at 11 woke up ready for action and wouldn't go back down til 2am. slept til 7.05 then though which was most unusual!

PinkTulips · 07/01/2007 18:37

slept there til 11...... 1 would have been alot better!

lyndyloo · 07/01/2007 20:27

Extending daytime naps - this is what I need help with too! Any ideas?

gingerninja · 07/01/2007 21:30

God, you've all got my DD. She is absolutely exactly the same as your DS Magic. I've pulled my hair out about it and tried baby whisperer, walking for hours, driving, etc etc but she is a nightmare to keep asleep during the day. She actually goes to sleep OK but exactly 30 mins later the eyes spring open and that's it. At night she started off quite well but it's gradually getting worse. Lately we're settled (ish) between 7 and 2.30 with 2 feeds then it's anyone's guess as to how the rest of the night will progress. It's generally sleepless!

cruisemum1 · 07/01/2007 21:37

It would seem that we could easily interchange our babies and not notice the difference. . my lo has finally settled down (he was put to bed asleep after bf at 6:30pm) after a screaming hissy fit that had my dd (age 9 tomorrow!) crying and frantic that we should call the hospital. I am convinced that he is just soooo tired and wired after sleeping only 90 mins all day added onto three consecutive nights of broken sleep and rubbish naps. I am at the end of my tether and feel that he cannot enjoy this anymore than I do . Help anyone???!!

kbaby · 07/01/2007 21:48

were the same with ds 5 months. he sleeps for 10-30 mins, i try to get him to nap every 2 hrs as hes so tired by then but unless hes been in the buggy and fallen asleep he never sleeps longer than 30 mins. It means by the time we get to 4pm he is grouchy and wants carrying all the time.
Nights arent much better he feeds at 7.30ish until 12pm waking twice in between for dummy/cuddling and then wakes up at 4am and no amount of feeding gets him back in his cot so we co sleep from there on.

I have a DD who is 2 and she was the same with naps. By about 9 months she extended naps to 1hr but dropped them to twice a day and at 1.5 dropped all naps.

amijee · 07/01/2007 22:15

oh dear- I have one of your babies too! My ds is 5 mths and has 4 half hr naps a day, after every 2 hrs of wakefulness.

His nights are completely unpredictable and he usually wakes 40 mins or so after he is 1st put down at night. I actually found a later bedtime better for him to sleep at night as he usually wakes form his last nap around 6pm.

The other night I tried to space out his nightly feeds to 3 hrly minimum and he really surprised me by staying down in the early hrs when he is usually up and I have to bring him into bed with me. Last night however, I did the same and it was awful!

I'm gonna attempt to continue putting him back to sleep without a feed so he doesn't get into the habit but if he is the same in a mth or so I am going to take a few days off work and do the crying thing. I can't see any other way.

As for the daytime naps - I don't really care as long as the nights are ok, although I agree it's pretty much connected.

puffling · 07/01/2007 22:20

Yes it's totally ok. It's a developmental stage. You'll start to see things improve from 6 months and get better and better.
I heard a theory recently that light short sleeps in very young babies are a defense against cot death.

merrily · 07/01/2007 22:43

It's hard work isn't it! My DD was just like this, never napped for longer than 35 minutes. I fretted about it at the time, tried all the Baby Whisperer stuff, but looking back I should have saved my energy and just relaxed about it. Try and go with the flow.

My DD was particularly bad from 4-7 months. After that she gradually started sleeping better at night and taking longer daytime naps. She was down to one 2-hour nap a day by 12 months, then dropped all daytime naps by 18 months. Now at 21 months she is a great sleeper most nights, sleeps 11-12 hours in her own bed. There is light at the end of the tunnel!

hotandbothered · 07/01/2007 22:52

My dd never slept longer than 30 mins in the day unless we were out, she was asleep on my knee and then shed sleep as long as the chatting lasted. At home? NO!
BUT...she now at 3.5 still has a nap for 2 hours ! Think it changed gradually at about a year and slowly she started to need more sleep. Now she is great at night too. 8-7.30 or even 8-8.30! We are so lucky and those bad few months now seem worth it

magicfairy · 08/01/2007 12:07

thanks everyone, its good to know that i'm not the only one! I think the most annoying thing is I know he can nap for a decent amount of time, yesterday, out for the afternoon and he slept the whole time, then was lovely until bedtime! Then this morning he wide awake after 30 mins exactly! Oh well, it looks like another long wet walk this arvo!!
Fortunatly hes not that bad at night, will sleep from 7 till between 10 and 1 then wake for a bf, then goes back fine in his cot, then wakes every 2 hours for a feed but almost always goes back to sleep until 7-8am. If he does wake to play he settles himself, but he has just learnt how to roll and last night was practising at 2am and kept getting stuck! So he ended up in our bed again!

OP posts:

cruisemum1 · 10/01/2007 19:45

I have had two days of ds napping really well so maybe this is his turning point . Mind you, last night was horrendous with him refusing to settle for hours which left one tired, frustrated and angry mummy . I am hoping for a better night tonight

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